Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-01-06
MATTHEW ARNonD



Arnold's departure from public office:
Both inspector and inspected are sure |
TO take leave Of each other with sincere |
regret, for certain rather unamiable quail |
ties Of Mr.. Arnold as conference.-the |
are conspicuously absent in Mr. Arnold |
as practical authority ON education. His |
long laboIs in this Office may seem little |
like waste of finesse and power; for one |
of the mos, original Of geniuses has been
obliged TO give mp "a routine what was
meant for mankind. Unlike many men
OF letters. however, Mr.. Arnold has never
taken away his hpnd from the rather un-
Inviting ploifgh TO which he has been
sentenced by fortune His reports on
French and German schools have been OF
great practical value, az we'll AZ admirably
expressed Ia sympathy with continental
ideas, and free from our usual narrow
aud ''insRlarn limitations, Mr. Arnold
has bren enabled 10 see and 10
estimate what foreign people have
our secondary education receives the at
Arnold's labors will have been rewarded
with success. But MIR. Arnold is not
best known TO the world as the practical
He is best known as the man of letters,
the man of discussion, and the poet. II
used to be said by admirers of woman OF
genius that they wished she would stick
to prose and not drop into poetry OF
Mr.. Arnold, people will much more
eagerly say that they wish he had chiefly
written in poetry, and had less frequently
dropped into prose- His prose, has in
al, txt eat
style, and an irony which was occasion.
ally fine, occasionally not so fine. AT his
best he reminds one of Pascal at his best;
at his worst lie has been somewhat
| frivolous ard yexatious. About dozens
of great problems, problems insoluble ok
| cept by time and chance, and the slow
working of circumstances, he has written
| like an almost disintertsted spectator
coucbed on 0lympian hights. He has
| tossed down q paradox from his sedeH
| quietus, says the NeicS, making blunder
| for which the So james GGsette will
probably exact due vengeance, or
| he has tortured quotation. We
controversy his method is that of the
scie, or Of the topical refrain or catch
! word in o Gouiic song nr farce. Every
I
some remark OF little meaning, if il 10 re
pented again and Ggain by some person
in play. This Eumor OF repetition, OF
dragging in an isolated text and hammer
ing at it, has been employed by Mr.
Arnold in literary and theological discus
sion. He has repeated TO himself, for
example, "Wragge is in custody and
that was one of his most legitimate little
| Tn Nl,a 4
tation from an opponent was go tortured
that man might be driven almost ont of
Mr.. Arnold's camp into that of his enc
mics by sense of the cruelty of the per
formance There hRs been u certain
humorous cruelty, like what Kingsley i'm
putes to the doths. ia some of Mr.
Arnold's criticisms. Bnt we came here
70 bless him, not TO curse him To con
vert phrase that much annuys some
critics, lie has 1.-THE qnality of his defect"
If he has used his rapier freely, he has
been much maulsd with literary blud-
geons, and has always come up smiling
and good tempered.
In pure literature we venture to think
that Mr.. Arnold's writings have been of
more value than his political and theolog-
ieal dissertations, OF course, he often
|
does be laud Byron SO highly, Byron
whom, even in Carlyle's youth. Mrs.
Butler discovered to be tie poet of girls
and boys as sad MS night for very mton.
ness, not of men and women With his
sense of style how can he forgive Byrons
"iolted- headed jargonn as Nj. swinbnrne
severely calls it? With his belief that
criticism of life is the function OF poetry,
how can he tolerate Byron's melancholy
and reckless glance at the mysterious
world, criticism of fast life, il crit
cisn Of life at all Il Probably Mr.. Arnold
is influenced by the gratitude Of youth,
by old memories of one Of the poets who
first caught his ear, aud By the natural
admiration of the fire and foroa OF the
man, fire that burned so luridly, and
force often wasted like the rush of a
river in spate. Again, on Milton. Mr.,
Arnold has written in n manner that
might partly have pleased DR.. johnson.
BIT, on the other side Of the account
Mr.. Arnold has opened az literary
critic, some Of the fields Of the modern
French genus IL SleanIa u sSa65r.
who knew them rot, all IN tnDther geld
w 1Ht g aim SOM 0f QUE knowledge 1'
10 l4atnl allu ulaglr Vi weigh poetry
He hns always spoken best whtn no BIZ.
spoken OF poetry above all, perhaps, ID
: the prefaces to the earlier collections OIL
his own lyrics and to "Merope' If BIZ
has been almost impious about Shelley
his lectures on Homsric translation arc
masterpieces of insight and appreciation
We may not believe in his hexameters =
the tendency of things has been agaius
them; but the rest of his Homeric literary
criticism is worthy of Plato or Of aris
tarchus, had Aristarchus deserted Thu
text for the matter Doubtless SIR. Arnolt
could not interest and arouse his reader
so much ii they we're always able to agree
with his tastes and his methods. MhW
would discussion he worth il We eouly
always agree. Nobody is liLeiy 10 fiul
any tamenes5 in the interest Of stuayln.
Mr.. Arnolds critical writings
These performances arc more OF les
eyaneseeut and fugitive. like criticism il
general; il is by his poetry That he uus
live. We can think Of 10 modern poe
who will lose SO littla nj the lmuds o.
time. One cau imagine that century
hence unless ''the biEotS OF that irCi
time" Shall "dee,n the harmless art ,
cfime,nD people will read Lord Ttunygo,
but not his plays and not perhaps
/ most Of his iiyllg. or alr Browning
they will make their selection m1inl,
from "Men Rnd Women and Dramati,
, Persona. Inc Ring and III Book
i will scarcely reach them; they TilI nU
9 break their minHs on anything 81
4 "crAggY" as "Fitine," or HRed Cottol
. NigAteap Country tut If they reac
Mt. Arnold's poetry, they will read il all
except, perhaps, the solitary experiment
'Merope.n There is no poet SO equal
none, as bIr SRluburne sa5s, SO sure
, footed, none SO truly classical AMI
! worthy Of comparison with iii,
Greeks, IN the Victorian age. Euripidt
might have been proud Of thu
Il "Straysd key-lier, Sophoeieg OF til,
2 songs in Einpedocles, and Of "Dcyei
Y Bfath 1tere is melancholy in hi
. poems, certainly, but il seeIls to us muci
y les5 like the Ppcuiinr mood OF aadness 0
. given age 10 himan history than lii,
tho still sud music Of humanity" |
& inform1 "S)hrab and Rustumm an,
T. Bladder" ~ It informs tue las of Home I
3 when Achilles tells his mother how sft
p bore him 10 brief and glorious duys. I'll
: power pf bringing nature before MS. ant
u the lesson Of nature IT, perliaps. ne
short Of the mastery Of WorlsN otth, m
= he never sinks 10 the baldnc So If pros
I which tisi5ures even "linteru ahisy.
There is an accent Of truth, ri fotliGp
Is Of kindness in his verse whig
i charms nul holds man not inseusibl
TO those Influences with a power hoil
singular ard oriGingi, 1t Is powe
7 which cannot be weighed ana naaalred
7 only felt and acknowledged Perhaps it
= impossible 10 NTsua about these thing,